ExtraTxt - Product FAQs

Q1. I have heard that ExtraTxt is a virtual appliance. What is a virtual appliance?

A virtual appliance is a self-contained, pre-configured virtual machine image designed to run on a virtualization platform (e.g. VMware ESXi). As everything is contained in the virtual appliance package, this makes the software installation far easier than preparing a system, installing the application, and configuring and setting it up. Users can simply download a virtual appliance and run it on a virtualization platform. For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_appliance.

Q2. Do I need IBM Lotus Domino to run ExtraTxt?

ExtraTxt is deployed as a self-contained virtual appliance which is running on a virtualization platform. So it is not necessary to deploy ExtraTxt on a server that is running Lotus Domino.

Q3. Which virtualization platform does ExtraTxt currently support?

Currently ExtraTxt supports VMware ESXi 4.x/5.x, Microsoft Server 2008/2012 R2 Hyper-V, VMware Player 5.x/6.x, VMware Workstation 10, Oracle VM Virtual Box 4.x.

Q4. Which GSM modem or mobile phones can be used by ExtraTxt to send and receive SMS - text messages?

ExtraTxt can use SMS network modem (such as MultiTech MultiConnect rCell), or GSM modem/mobile phones conformed to the GSM standards specifying the AT-command interface (e.g. ETSI GSM 07.05 or ETSI GSM 07.07).

For more information, please see SMS - Text Messaging Hardware and Product Requirements.

Q5. How to test if my mobile phone can support sending SMS using Microsoft HyperTerminal?

Q6. We want to install ExtraTxt on our Windows 2008 server. However, our GSM modem has Windows XP/2003 drivers only. What can I do?

You can set up the following elements on another Windows XP/2003 machine:

  • GSM modem
  • Extracomm Remote Port Server (can be download from Extracomm web site)
Then ExtraTxt server can access the remote GSM modem through Remote Port Server.

Q7. Does ExtraTxt provide any API to integrate with other programs?

Yes. ExtraTxt provides API for third party applications to send text messages as well as to query outgoing and incoming text messages that are transmitted through ExtraTxt.

For more information, please see this page for ExtraTxt API.

Q8. I want to access ExtraTxt server through HTTPS. Is it possible?

Yes. You can enable HTTPS on the ExtraTxt server so that you access ExtraTxt through a secure connection.
See also: ExtraTxt Reverse Proxy Server

Q9. How can I upgrade my ExtraTxt server?

You can simply download the update package from our update server and then apply it to your ExtraTxt installation.